Dozens of human skeletons and body parts packed in gunny bags were found piled up in a room at Unnao Reserve Police Lines on Thursday.

Police said prima facie the gunny bags appear to contain body parts of unidentified bodies, which were preserved in a room — which was a part of a mortuary until 2008 — but were never disposed off.

Even as police officers tried to find out exact details of the body parts kept in a room that has been locked for nearly six years, DGP Arun Kumar Gupta sought a report from the Unnao police on the matter.

IG (Law and Order) A Satish Ganesh said: “Prima facie it has come to our knowledge that the skeletons were found in a room in Reserve Police Lines where there was a mortuary till 2008. The mortuary was shifted to another building in 2008. A report has been sought from the Unnao SP in the matter.”

Lucknow Range DIG R K Chaturvedi, who visited the spot, said the room functioned as a “viscera room” where body parts and viscera samples of unclaimed and unidentified bodies recovered from various places were kept till 2008.

“It is yet to be established whether the body parts included some samples collected for identification purposed too… These body parts should have been disposed off after investigation reached a logical conclusion, but it was not done,” he added.

“A committee has been formed. All the body parts will be counted on Thursday and records relevant to each will be examined. Following this, these will be disposed off according to government guidelines… There appears to be some negligence in timely disposal of these body parts. The committee will also decide on action in this regard,” said Chaturvedi.

Local BJP leaders and a large number of locals, who gathered at the spot after the skeletons could be seen from a window, demanded an inquiry into the matter. When contacted, BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya said the discovery of skeletons was “one of the many instances of ‘jungle raj’ prevailing under the SP government”.